Panel sees potential in Alamance

Sam Roberts / Times-News

By Chris Lavender / Times-News

Published: Friday, August 23, 2013 at 03:26 PM.

A panel at the seventh annual State of Alamance at the Alamance Country Club Friday agreed the local economy continues to rebound from the recession that struck in late 2007 but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“It’s not robust as it was,”
Ala
mance
County
A
r
ea Chamber of Commerce President
Mac
Wi
lliams said about the county’s current economic conditions.

Williams was part of a three-member panel including
Mebane
City
Manager David Cheek and NAI Piedmont Triad Broker Bob Lewis. The event was sponsored by The Triad Business Journal.

Williams said that
Ala
mance
County
has experienced job gains in health care, education, and lodging and hospitality since 2008 with the largest decline of jobs in manufacturing.

A sign that the economy is improving has been the absorption of unused industrial real estate by companies looking to expand. Lewis said over the past year five buildings with more than 500,000 square feet in the
Piedmont
Triad have been absorbed by companies. Land sales remain stagnant, while development for multi-family residential subdivisions has increased across the region.

Cheek said there are over 2,000 apartments in Mebane that are 99 percent filled. Two new apartment complexes are scheduled to be built. More signs of an improving housing market are evident at the Arrowhead subdivision in Mebane. Cheek said a year ago there were just four house built in the subdivision, which now has over 25 houses built at the site.

A panel at the seventh annual State of Alamance at the Alamance Country Club Friday agreed the local economy continues to rebound from the recession that struck in late 2007 but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“It’s not robust as it was,” AlamanceCountyArea Chamber of Commerce President MacWilliams said about the county’s current economic conditions.

Williams was part of a three-member panel including MebaneCity Manager David Cheek and NAI Piedmont Triad Broker Bob Lewis. The event was sponsored by The Triad Business Journal.

Williams said that AlamanceCounty has experienced job gains in health care, education, and lodging and hospitality since 2008 with the largest decline of jobs in manufacturing.

A sign that the economy is improving has been the absorption of unused industrial real estate by companies looking to expand. Lewis said over the past year five buildings with more than 500,000 square feet in the Piedmont Triad have been absorbed by companies. Land sales remain stagnant, while development for multi-family residential subdivisions has increased across the region.

Cheek said there are over 2,000 apartments in Mebane that are 99 percent filled. Two new apartment complexes are scheduled to be built. More signs of an improving housing market are evident at the Arrowhead subdivision in Mebane. Cheek said a year ago there were just four house built in the subdivision, which now has over 25 houses built at the site.

Mebane is poised to benefit from growth in OrangeCounty, according to Cheek.

OrangeCounty has used funds from a quarter-cent sales tax rate increase approved in 2011 by voters to install water and sewer line infrastructure along Interstate 40/85 to attract future business. The county spent $11 million to install water and sewer lines.

Cheek said Mebane has agreed to provide water and sewer services to OrangeCounty’s lines. Cheek said this area will see significant growth over the next 10 years and that there are several projects already looking to develop along the interstate in OrangeCounty.

AlamanceCountyvoters considered a quarter-cent sales tax rate increase on the November ballot last year. The proposed increase was defeated by voters in AlamanceCountyfor a second time. OrangeCountyvoters passed its quarter-cent sales tax rate increase on a second attempt. OrangeCounty is using 50 percent of the quarter-cent sales tax rate increase on economic development and 50 percent of the increase on education spending. OrangeCounty receives about $5 million in additional sales tax revenue annually from the increase.

AlamanceCounty had planned to spend additional revenues from its quarter-cent sales tax rate hike on an economic development fund.

Cheek said AlamanceCounty’s retail sales in fiscal 2006-07 were $1.4 billion. The county bounced back to pre-recession levels when retail sales in 2009-10 reached $1.4 billion. For fiscal 2012-13, the county’s retail sales reached $1.7 billion, representing a 22-percent increase over seven years. Cheek said Tanger Outlets and Alamance Crossing have been a driving force behind the increase.

Williams said the recent retail sales increases “makes it even sadder that the sales tax bond issue that we tried to pass didn’t work because most of the money or a lot of the money that would have been realized would have been paid by other people other than local people.”

Williams said the AlamanceCountyArea Chamber of Commerce was active last year promoting how AlamanceCountywould benefit from a quarter-cent sales tax rate increase.

The panel discussed the benefits and drawbacks of AlamanceCounty’s low property tax rates.

“You can pay for either growth or decline, you are going to pay for one or the other and if I'm going to pay taxes, I just assume pay for growth,” Williams said.

Lewis said he believes AlamanceCounty does benefit from having one of the lowest property tax rates in the state but it’s just one factor of the economic puzzle. The quality of schools is also a factor in economic development.

Cheek said there is “quite a bit of difference” in the amount Orange and Alamance counties spend on their public school systems and the difference is evident in how the facilities appear in the two districts.

DURING THE PANEL discussion, current and potential economic development projects were highlighted.

Sheetz continues to make progress on its 250,000-square-foot distribution center in Burlington, which is scheduled to open in January 2015. Williams said the project is on schedule.

The project’s total capital investment is $33 million and the distribution center will employ 250 workers. The development also positions a 100-acre site nearby to be developed in the future with access to water and sewer.

An unidentified company is still considering Project Swordfish for a site in Hawfields. Cheek said Project Swordfish is a distribution center that would include 450 jobs and provide a $100 million investment. The average wage would be $35,000.

Cheek outlined the interlocal financing agreement reached earlier this year by Mebane, Graham, and AlamanceCounty to attract Project Swordfish.

“We made some strong committments to do that,” Cheek said.

Cheek said the interlocal agreement includes a 1,200-acre tract where Project Swordfish would be located in the center. Cheek said officials in Graham, Mebane, and AlamanceCounty have worked aggressively to close the deal.

Williams said he was contacted about the project last year.

“Swordfish is still in a position it could happen or not,” Williams said. “If it doesn’t happen, we will be ready for other opportunities,” Williams said.

Lewis said over the past year the number of phone calls he received about the project had increased and that the project is still shrouded in secrecy.

“They play cloak and dagger,” Lewis said. “These guys come from Raleigh and say they are from (the North Carolina Department of Commerce) and give you one name.”

The region’s health care industry was also a focal point of the State of the Alamance event.

AlamanceRegionalMedicalCenter CEO John Currin discussed the pending changes in the health care industry.

“Health care is on the brink of rapid change,” Currin said.

Currin said ARMC and its new partner Cone Health would continue to provide patient-centered health care at its state-of-the-art facilities.

The current $62 million clinical expansion at Alamance Regional is projected to be completed in September with internal renovations to follow. Currin said the expansion will double the hospital’s emergency room capacity. An area above the new emergency room will be upgraded with surgical robotic equipment. Currin said the emergency room is projected to serve 60,000 patients in 2014.

Alamance Regional’s new cancer center construction is nearing completion and the center will open by the end of the year. The employment outlook at ARMC looks positive through all the changes.

“I expect our employment picture will at least remain stable and more than likely continue to grow incrementally as we move forward,” Currin said.